Monday, October 12, 2015

The deterioration of science education in India should be of greater concern to us than not winning a Nobel Prize

October is that month when institutions in Sweden and Norway, including the Swedish Academy of Sciences, announce the winners of the Nobel Prize in physics, chemistry, medicine, literature, economics and peace. The awards in physics, chemistry and medicine have a long history and it is probably this long tradition, rather than their monetary value, that gives the Nobel Prize the extraordinary power to influence public perceptions of the scientific profession.

A question sometimes asked, though perhaps less often than it should be by Indian politicians and the intelligentsia, is why, despite our much-touted scientific acumen, no Nobel Prize in science has been won by an Indian for work done in India for more than 80 years — as Sir CV Raman won the physics Nobel in 1930. This question is an important one since the teaching and doing of science require substantial resources that come from the tax payer. An obvious answer is that for Indian science to reach such prize-winning calibre we require not just ‘outstanding’ discoveries in science but also what it takes to come up with them and that these requirements have undergone changes beyond recognition since the Raman era. The question we should rather be asking today is what kind of science allows individual excellence to thrive, bring glory to the nation, and deliver tangible benefits to society.

It is important to realise that many Nobel Prize-winning discoveries both in the past and also in more recent times have been innovation-focused. Contrary to common wisdom, top quality curiositydriven research and that which assumes a broader application often go hand in hand. Excellence in applied and basic research synergises each other over long periods of time. Established innovations can often throw up questions whose answers in turn lead to outstanding discoveries.

The discovery of the ammonia synthesis catalyst in the early 20th century is a particularly instructive case in point. It is essential in the manufacture of the most common fertiliser, globally made in billions of tonnes today, and its discoverer Fritz Haber was awarded the Nobel Prize in 1918. However, while his work revealed how ammonia was made, the question as to why the catalyst works remained unanswered for about 70 years. It was Gerhard Ertl, using modern experimental techniques, who provided the answer and won the Nobel Prize in 2007.

Another relevant example is the Nobel awarded to John Robert Vane in 1982 for providing an answer to why aspirin is an effective pain killer. Although aspirin had been patented in 1900 by the company Bayer, and its medicinal benefits as a pain killer were well established, its mechanism of action was not known. Vane’s answer paved the pathway for the introduction of a new generation of heart drugs.

This year’s Nobel Prize for medicine to Tu Youyou of China for the discovery of artemisinin, an antimalarial drug isolated from Chinese wormwood, is a clear example of how innovation continues to be driven by good science. In China the national project against malaria to discover new therapies was started in 1967, and artemisinin (the active ingredient) isolated by 1972. In other words, it took four decades for the scientific community as a whole to collectively establish and accept the enormous scope and utility of Tu’s work.

Much of Nobel Prize-winning science has been interdisciplinary in character. Many prize-winning discoveries had engineers working with scientists. Carl Bosch and Guilio Natta (one of the Nobel Prize winners for plastic) were chemical engineers who collaborated and shared their Nobels with chemists. In recent times the border lines between physics and chemistry or chemistry and biology are so blurred that chemists often complain that the prizes given for chemistry have little to do with chemistry. In this century four out of the 16 Nobel prizes in chemistry, have been awarded for work related to catalysis, an interdisciplinary area of much industrial relevance.

Productive, high-quality science requires good infrastructural facilities, good students, expensive instruments and industry-academia linkages. Such facilities are extremely rare in developing countries. No wonder many talented scientists from the developing world have looked for professional fulfilment in the West. Aziz Sancar, one of the Nobel Prize winners in chemistry this year, is one more addition to the long list of Nobel laureates in the United States whose primary training in science was in the developing world. Hargobind Khorana and V Ramakrishnan, both Indianorigin scientists and Nobel laureates, also worked in well-funded science laboratories elsewhere.

The future of Indian science as a whole is uncertain and the overall deterioration in science education and research are matters of far greater concern than not winning a Nobel Prize. Science education and research must not be thought of as water falling from a tap that can be closed and opened at will. Neglecting science beyond a point can kill it permanently. In India with less than 1% of GDP allocation to science and the private sector’s complete indifference to long-term industry-academia linkages we are fast approaching that point. Sumit Bhaduri taught at Northwestern University and IIT Bombay The views expressed are personal.

Bulbbulapps library, a smartphone and tablet app for children below six years, has garnered more than a million views on YouTube. Merely four months old, Hyderabad-based startup Bulbulapps is available on all platforms is and is currently among the top apps in iOS India.

How Bulbul was conceived

A serial entrepreneur, Prakash was always passionate about films and books right from his childhood. “I grew up to become a filmmaker and an artist. Bulbulapps is inspired by this very fundamental need to learn and unlearn. Most importantly. It is meant to unlock the curiosity of every single child. It became even more evident when my child began to ask questions born out of curiosity. They enjoyed reading and learning through the digital platform as it was highly engaging and had a tremendous visual and interesting narration,” says Prakash, founder and CEO, Bulbulapps.

Prakash was awed by the curiosity and the questions that every child asks constantly. Their hunger for answer is endless. “When I first came across the bird ‘Bulbul’, I found that it was unique, bubbly, full of curiosity and had a restlessness to discover things around it. I wanted to create a brand that had a distinctive and childlike voice – a voice and visual that stimulates something personal, embraces modern technology and puts the child reader and parents’ choice foremost in the process. So Bulbul came to existence,” he says.

Loaded with stories

Bulbulapps library is loaded with different stories wherein a kid or a parent gets on single library app with lots of categories and books that they can download and read. The basic version is free. We also offer a subscription model. “Currently, we don’t tie up our apps with any physical books. Though we have requests from pre-schools at this moment we are more focused on the library app itself,” Prakash points out.

Collaborative effort

The foundation of the library app is ‘Think like a Child’. “For our app Krishna and the Universe we had a writer from Mumbai, a Spanish artist from Mexico, an Israeli music studio, a city animator and a Hyderabadi voice-over artist who collaborated to create this beautiful app for the pre-school children using our bulbulstudio.com. It is a highly engaging, enriching a mobile phone story for children,” says Prakash.

The team has over 180 artists from around the world, who constantly bring new story ideas on board and translate them to lovely apps. “We believe if people can collaborate from different countries to do coding and create software, they can also collaborate to make a beautiful interactive story for kids,” he says.

Currently, Bulbulapps have touched 250,000 cumulative downloads and counting. “Some of our books even went on to become No1 eBook app in 14 countries including Saudi Arabia and Pakistan,” he adds.

What next?

“We began our journey by creating known folk and fairy tales. Our next focus is to develop native characters and regional content for India. All the apps in our library are more popular and easily understood stories in English. Apart from English, we are in the process of creating local apps in Hindi and Telugu. In the next six months we plan to introduce apps in another 12 languages. Our new series is kids travel apps. We just introduced Tuk-Tuk in Mumbai. Soon we will it in other cities,” says Prakash.

Long working hours can lead to a sedentary lifestyle and associated illnesses such as obesity, hypertension and cardiovascular diseases. A few minutes of physical activity can not only enhance employee productivity but also employee bonding, so crucial for any organisation

A competitive workspace, hovering deadlines and a pressure-cooker like environment are corporate realities of today. Our highly-connected lifestyles have magnified work-related stress with long working hours, disturbed sleeping patterns, sedentary lifestyles and lack of relaxation. As a result, most working professionals today suffer from various associated ailments. Stress is also becoming one of the reasons for declining productivity and attrition rates in some organisations. Additionally, organisations suffer from the loss of millions of working days due to stress-related illnesses.

However, an increasing number of organisations are realising that employees are not a replaceable property but human resource that needs to be valued. Efforts are being made by corporates to help employees achieve wellness, good health and reduce stress. For instance, setting up of gyms inside office campuses, official tours, yoga classes and socially-relevant activities are some ways organisations are improving employee engagement and wellness. Modern organisations can take various steps to reduce employee burnout.

* Reflexology is a non-intrusive treatment to wash away the stress from the body. In the procedure, effective pressure is applied to reflex points in hands, feet and ears by professional reflexologists. All that this treatment needs is a special chair and a 30-45 minute session. Experts say that a once-in-a-month session with a reflexologist can rejuvenate your employees and minimise their mental and physical stress. The treatment has been proved to lead to better sleeping patterns, thereby leading to better focus and high productivity at the workplace.

* Yoga is a form of meditation that synchronises the body, mind and soul. Globally, people practising yoga have discovered various psychological and physical benefits, including improved strength, flexibility and general well-being, apart from relief from stress, anxiety and depression. Arranging yoga sessions once a week can help employees de-stress. All it needs is a large room and some dedication on part of the management.

* Workout sessions, a few minutes a day, have proven to boost employee confidence and performance. Today, an increasing number of organisations are incorporating a gym area within the office premises. Long working hours lead to a sedentary lifestyle and associated illnesses such as obesity, hypertension and cardiovascular diseases. A few minutes of working out and stretching can enhance employee productivity. Sometimes, it also leads to employee bonding, so crucial for any organisation. Here, management can take steps by inculcating wellness programmes in the employee schedule.

* Off-site gathering is another employee bonding initiative. Often, hectic schedules distance employees not only from their personal lives but also from each other—competitive work environment is known to create fissures among employees. Thus, arranging occasional off-site gatherings can help employees mingle with each other and help them de-stress by talking everything but work.

WhatsApp users will no more have to worry about memory storage capacity of their smartphones as it has announced a back-up feature for Android platform that will help store chats and multimedia content in Google Drive.

“...you don’t want your memories stuck on your phone. (What if something happens?!) So starting today, WhatsApp for Android lets you create a private backup of your chat history, voice messages, photos and videos in Google Drive. And once you do, you can restore everything on a new device with just a couple of taps,” Google Drive Director of Product Management Scott Johnston said in his blog.

“The new backup feature is rolling out over in the next few months, so keep an eye on your WhatsApp settings to see if it’s available,” he said.

WhatsApp website also shared similar information.

“You can back up your messages and media to Google Drive so that if you lose your phone or switch to another Android phone, your chats are safe,” the instant messenger portal said.

The feature will come in a new update for existing Android users. After updating their WhatsApp application, they can go to setting option in the application, select ‘Chats and Calls’ option and opt for frequency — daily, weekly, monthly or never — for saving their data.

However, this update at present is not available in WhatsApp application for Android users in India.

WhatsApp did not respond to the query sent regarding the date when this feature will be available for Indian users.

The mobile instant messenger reported to have over 70 million monthly active users in India till November 2014.

In September, the company disclosed that it has 900 million active users globally.

Aero clubs from various colleges win prizes at competitions in the US

MUMBAI: For decades, aviation experts in India have rued India’s inability in producing planes and its makers. Even as the country continues to buy most of its aircraft from foreign aircraft makers, a small but promising culture emerging in city engineering colleges appears to be a ray of hope.

Fed by a rising wave of international aero design competitions, aspiring aeronautical engineers are forming ‘aero clubs’ to make their own flying machines.

Students of Veermata Jijabai Technological Institute (VJTI), Matunga, established one such ‘aero club’ in 2010. The club, named Aero VJTI has so far sent four teams to the aero design competition held in the US and won some prizes, said students.

“Over the years, our club has become very good in aircraft designing. VJTI also has a windtunnel lab for those interested in research in the field of aeronautics,” said Darshit Dalal, a member of the club.

The Aero Design competition, held annually in the United States by the Society of Automotive Engineers, has found a number of takers among city’s engineering colleges. Students are tasked to make their own Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) at the competition.

These clubs also help students apply their minds beyond the curriculum. “The problems presented to us in the aero design competition are very real. The UAVs and the aircraft technology has wide application in many fields,” said Akib Peerzade, a former member of ‘Team Aerosouls’ at the MH Saboo Siddik College of Engineering at Byculla.

According t o Peerzade, Aerosouls was the very first Indian team to compete and win in the advanced category at the competition.

Students added that juggling time for such activities along with their studies has been a challenge.

Funding is one of the biggest challenges, felt students. While many colleges and sponsors provide monetary assistance to the competing teams, the students often have to fund their trip to US.

“Initially, the funding was a problem. But as we progressed, the college realised the importance of our work and helped us generously. But once we won prizes at the competition and were featured in the newspapers, the funds started pouring in,” added Peerzade.

Trio maps city decibel levels, prepares tables based on their findings

MUMBAI: When 11- year- old Sahil Parab stepped out with his parents on the last day of Ganeshotsav celebrations to witness various processions heading towards immersion sites, he could not stand the noise.

He asked his father for his smartphone, opened a noisemeasuring app and found that the decibel levels were touching 100dB. “The loudspeakers and DJ’s sets sent vibrations through my body, while drunk people were dancing all around me. It felt like I was partially deaf,” said Parab adding, “I showed my parents the readings and persuaded them to head home.”

The growing noise levels had been a concern playing on his mind even before the Ganeshotsav began. To bring forth the need to turn down the volume, Parab, along with two 12 year olds – Harsh Mhadadlkar and Anirudh Chowdhury – recorded noise levels of 12 locations during Dahi Handi and 10 locations during Ganeshotsav.

The children – all residents of BDD chawl in Lower Parel – took up the task as part of a research project guided by Reniscience Education, an organisation that works with children outside the classroom.

“These children prepared tables and recorded noise levels during the morning, evening and night. We were surprised with their findings,” said Sangita Kapadia, their teacher from Reniscience Education.

The trio also met Sumaira Abdulali, convener, NGO Awaaz Foundation, to learn how to use noise meters. “We put together a set of questions for Sumaira ma’am and wanted to know how noise meters are used. We also asked her about how the city has been divided into silence and residential zones and how complaints can be filed at police stations,” said Mhadadlkar.

Implementing the format they read in newspapers, the trio took down readings in their notebooks and compared them to what was published over the 10 days of the festival. “We downloaded a decibel meter application on our teacher’s phone and found that noise from dhols, DJ sets and loudspeakers measured high on the meter,” said Mhadadlkar.

Abdulali explained to them how noise complaints could also be filed online on various social media websites. “These children have the ability, interest and enthusiasm to do something even the police could not. They have set an example of how citizens can be proactive,” said Abdulali, adding, “I am very impressed with them and hope to mentor them in future.”

In the coming week, the boys will accompany volunteers from the NGO to take noise readings during the 10-day Navratri festival.

Maharashtra Government Resolution dated 7th October 2015 for the Celebration of Vachan Prerana Din on 15th October, 2015

Students in the city and surrounding areas can leave their school bags at home next Thursday , when schools across the state will observe Vaachan Prerna Diwas or Reading Day as per a government order.

The decision to celebrate October 15, the birth anniversary of former President of India A P J Abdul Kalam, as Vaachan Prerna Diwas in schools across the state was made by school education minister Vinod Tawde soon after Kalam's death on July 27. In a government resolution issued on Wednesday , the state asked all students from Class III to VIII to read non-academic books in school, and instructed schools to host book exhibitions, implement gift-a-book programmes, introduce students to well-known authors from around the world, and hold discussions on books. The government has said that almost Rs 6 lakh is available for the programme.

Going a step further, the office of the deputy director has asked schools in the Mumbai region to also allow students to leave their bags home on the day . “Kalam's writings are an in spiration to students and youth. These activities will help students develop an interest for reading, which is sorely lacking. So we created the `school without bags' plan for that day,“ said B B Chavan, deputy director, Mumbai region. Suggested activities for schools in Mumbai include inviting authors, literature and other subject experts, reading a book that is not a school textbook and teaching students how to read out loud. “There should be no kind of pressures in class this day and a positive environment should be created. This way , students can read what they like and have fun doing it. Only then will the programme be a success,“ said the circular issued by Chavan.

Schools have also been advised to dedicate time on a specific day every month for reading, host book fairs, organize meets for teachers and keep the school library updated. They should also award students and teachers who read the maximum number of books.

However, with exams just round the corner, schools are not sure if they can have activities throughout the day .“Our oral and practical exams begin next week, so we might not be able to dedicate the entire day for these activities. We will, may be, conduct them for some time during the day . The idea of celebra ting such days is school is great,“ said Freny Mehta, principal, Alexandra Girls' Institution, Fort.

Chavan said the plan is not rigid and schools can make adjustments as required.

Last year, all schools in the city's south zone marked November 21as No-Textbook Day . A brainchild of Chavan, schools had hosted various activities such as book reading sessions, interactions with authors, newspaper reading and making and book review discussions during school hours. There was participation of more than 430 schools.

Suggested Timetable

Period 1 - Importance of the Programme

Period 2 - Invite an author, artist, actor or other Subject experts

Period 3 -Teach Students techniques to read out in class or in public

Period 4, 5 - Students must carry to school a book of their choice and read out